Westland (Mich.) Police & Fire Retirement System

Westland (Mich.) Police & Fire Retirement System

The Westland Police & Fire Retirement System was established by the City of Westland, Michigan, to administer pension benefits exclusively for its sworn police officers and firefighters. City Treasurer Steven J. Smith serves as Board President, with statutory representation from both the police and fire departments via trustees Neil Egan and Andrew McNeil, alongside civilian trustees Michael Reddy and William Gabriel. Plan Administrator Lisa Eggers handles day-to-day operations. The system participates in the Michigan Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (MAPERS), which provides educational resources and legislative advocacy for the state's local pension funds. The fund's investment approach reflects the conservative, income-oriented posture typical of a small, single-city public-safety pension. Its allocation targets core infrastructure and real estate alongside traditional fixed-income and public-equity sleeves. Known holdings include domestic infrastructure investments within the United States. The system does not operate as a direct institutional investor commanding significant bargaining power; instead, it accesses most asset classes through commingled funds and separate accounts recommended by its general investment consultant. This consultant acts as the de facto outsourced CIO, screening managers and monitoring performance for the trustee board's quarterly review. The board functions without dedicated in-house investment staff beyond the Plan Administrator's operational support. Trustee education and governance travel through MAPERS membership, which connects Westland's board to peer funds across the state for roundtables, training sessions, and updates on Michigan's Public Employee Retirement System Investment Act. This model places all active manager selection and asset-allocation decisions onto the consulting relationship, making the consultant's recommendation the binding plank of investment policy. Michael Reddy and William Gabriel bring general governance experience to the board's fiduciary oversight, while Neil Egan and Andrew McNeil ensure the voice of plan participants stays embedded in resource allocation. The structural differentiator is the fund's narrow beneficiary base. Unlike city general-employee plans that pool all municipal workers, Westland maintains a standalone system for police and fire personnel only. This creates a compact liability structure with higher per-member benefit expectations and a smaller contribution base from which to fund them — making each allocation decision weightier. The system's MAPERS affiliation gives it a lobbying channel for state-level reform that could affect assumed rates of return and municipal contribution requirements, a critical pressure point for a fund whose entire asset pool serves the public-safety departments of a single Michigan suburb.